>> narrator: tonight on frontline two special reports from conflicts in the middle ea. >> (chanting): libya, libya! >> narrator: first, benghazi. five years after the revolution in libya... the city is a war zone. the army and militias... isis and other islamist militan. civilians and children in the crossfire. >> this is the last point we can reach here in the middle of benghazi. >> narrator: correspondent feras kilani reports from inside the chaotic fight. and later tonight, journalist

and filmmaker safa al-ahmad on the ground in yemen. >> i really wanted to go and see for myself, because so little information that is reliable comes out. >> narrator: on a dangerous journey into the heart of the conflict. (gunfire) investigating the devastating human toll and unexpected alliances on the battlefield. >> he just says quite casually these are al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. >> narrator: two new reports one powerful hour of frontline >> frontlinis made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. and by the corporation for public broadcasting. major support for frontliis provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information is available at macfound.org. additional support is provided by the park foundation,

dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues. the john and helen glessner family trust, supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. the ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide, at fordfoundation.org. the wyncote foundation. and by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. (gunshots) >> kilani: i was very scared.

this area is full of explosives, snipers, everything. so the only way to survive, to be safe there, is to keep your eyes open and looking in all directions. not just for us, even for the fighters there, it was very scary. >> narrator: benghazi, libya. reporter feras kilani has gained rare access to libyan forces fighting for control of the city against isis and other extremist groups. >> kilani: in the last year, isis managed to take whole districts inside benghazi, in the center of benghazi. and now isis is the most important power in these districts. >> narrator: feras has been here many times since the revolution

in 2011. (crowd chanting "libya") back then, celebrations in benghazi marked the overthrow of muammar gaddafi's regime. but the armed groups that defeated the libyan dictator with the help of nato and the united states soon turned on each other, and the country descended into chaos. then in 2012, islamist militants in benghazi launched an attack on the u.s. consulate which.s killed ambassador christopher stevens and three colleagues. >> kilani: when the american ambassador was killed in the consulate attack, it was the moment where everyone recognized that the islamists are in charge of everything in benghazi. >> narrator: two years later, isis emerged in libya.

since then, the u.s. military estimates that the group has doubled in size to as many as 6,000, recruiting fighters from abroad and other local islamist groups. libya is now their biggest base outside syria and iraq. feras is now in benghazi to see how the fight against isis is intensifying. >> kilani: this is the last point we can reach here in sabri district in benghazi. these buildings in front of us are secured by the libyan army, but beyond this line isis is still in charge of all of the area. >> narrator: feras is with a powerful militia which calls itself the benghazi anti-terrorism unit. it's led by 38 year-old faraj quaim. his militia is one of many

battling isis in the city. >> (translated): we use this building to observe the enemy. it's full of our fighters. we've lost more than five men here. this is the front line. if you look over there, the enemy is less than 400 meters away. (gunfire) these are the brave men on the front lines. >> narrator: the militia is fighting a key battle for sabri district, a central part of the city near benghazi's port. (gunfire) >> narrator: isis's dominance in

this area gives it access to a supply route by sea to the other parts of coastal libya which it controls. >> kilani: if you look at the libyan coast, we're talking about 2,000 kilometers-- the libyan coast in the mediterranean-- at least 200 kilometers of it is under isis control. >> narrator: isis and other islamist militias deploy snipers near benghazi's port and have deeply entrenched positions. >> narrator: the fighters say they are poorly equipped. there is currently a u.n. ban on arms sales to libya. >> (translated): egypt gave us a small quantity of weapons, but

it's nothing compared to what isis has. is it because they don't believe isis exists in libya? i swear to god, look at them, they're right in front of you. on your way here someone shot at you. a sniper on the look-out, he doesn't care. all that matters to him is to shoot and kill. >> narrator: commander faraj says the lack of weapons makes defeating isis much harder. >> (translated): my soldiers are sacrificing themselves. look at their weapons. they don't have enough ammunition. the main reason is the lack of resources in the hands of the libyan army, the ministries, and the units manning the front lines. >> narrator: libya's political situation is chaotic. there are rival governments, and military forces are divided along tribal and political lines.

isis has taken advantage of that and over the last year gained territory. at one point, hundreds of soldiers withdrew from the front line in a bitter dispute with the influential head of the libyan army, general khalifa haftar. general haftar has been attempting to bring all the militias fighting isis under his command. but many want to remain independent and accuse the general of trying to become libya's next dictator, a charge he denies. >> (translated): i don't deal with matters in the gaddafi way. he didn't pass on his methods to me. we're here to reassure and work for the people. we want stability for them. >> a person who doesn't have any ambition is not a normal person.

to live a true life, you have to be ambitious. >> narrator: many of the militia leaders remain suspicious of the general. and commander faraj says the libyan army doesn't supply his forces. >> feras asks the commander about the problems between the local militias and the libyan army. >> what got us to this stage is the political bickering. differences between local leaders, the army leadership and the state leadership. the army leadership is not supposed to get involved in politics. >> kilani: it's one of the most important reasons the army couldn't finish the islamists in benghazi, it's because of this conflict inside the army's coalition. it's impossible to defeat isis

within this situation. >> narrator: commander faraj's militia heads into an area taken by isis last year. suddenly, there is an explosion nearby. (explosion) >> narrator: it's a bomb dropped by a libyan air force jet, targeting isis positions. it falls dangerously close. because the militia and the libyan military don't coordinate with each other, they're sometimes in each other's line of fire. >> kilani: the air force has some kind of targets and they send fighter jets to strike them, but they don't know who's on the ground.

>> narrator: that night, the soldiers set up camp near the front line. they failed to gain any ground during the day. >> (translated): their morale is low because we're not advancing. those not physically injured have been impacted mentally. this tough situation has left some of my men very distressed. one of my men survived an airstrike, but he's badly traumatized. >> narrator: it's not just the fight against isis that is taking its toll. the divisions with the military are becoming more deadly. the fighters say that the libyan air force recently bombed their position, mistaking them for isis. six of them were killed.

this fighter says he survived and shows his scars. despite the obstacles, the men vow to continue the fight. >> (translated): my men are determined to liberate all of benghazi. we want to free this district so we can move on to the next one. if there was more support and unity between the forces, we'd have advanced by now. >> narrator: the battle for benghazi has now been going on for over 18 months. more than 100,000 residents have been displaced by the fighting in the center of the city. >> kilani: benghazi suffered a lot from bombs. it's difficult for those people who live at the front lines.

they are desperate. >> narrator: some of the displaced now live in this abandoned school. jamal warfali says he and his family fled their home in 2014.

>> narrator: many schools in the heart of benghazi have been closed due to the fighting, but this is one of a few that has reopened. it's a dangerous journey to classes for the students. feras meets the head teacher, fauzia mukhtar abeid, at the only safe entrance to the school. >> the entrance is... >> still near the front line? >> yes, still near the front line, the other door, but this one is safer, and the students live in this area. >> kilani: and despite all these conditions, the parents of the kids, they're still keen to send their kids? >> yes, yes, they want to study. they don't want to lose this year just like the year before.

>> narrator: there are currently 200 children in classes here. as well as regular lessons, a social worker speaks to the students. >> kilani: i remember i was in one of the classrooms and we can hear the fighting just a few hundred meters away from us and none of the kids or the teacher noticed this. it says a lot how they get this kind of normal feeling in such places after a year and a half. not just here but all over the

area. >> narrator: back at his headquarters, militia leader faraj quaim is preparing the next operation against isis. commander faraj says they need all the help they can get. >> (translated): isis is more advanced than us. whether in the field or in their agility. they move around in smart ways. if stability is not restored in libya, none of the neighboring countries will be stable. from egypt to tunisia, and from italy to the whole of europe. >> narrator: in recent weeks, forces under the banner of the libyan national army have dislodged isis from a number of benghazi's neighborhoods. some residents are tentatively returning, despite the ongoing fighting.

>> kilani: it is going to be very hard to defeat isis in the future. i think libya might be within months or one or two years one of the nightmares for the west. >> narrator: the united states and nato are now developing plans to once again intervene in libya and help the military and the militias unite. but isis is continuing to recruit new fighters and it's black flag still flies over pars of the center of the city.

>> narrator: coming up next on frontlinjournalist and filmmaker safa al-ahmad reports from a strategic city in yemen under siege. >> when i arrived in taiz after being smuggled up the mountain, i saw a different city. it was empty and haunted and broken in a way i was hoping i broken in a way i was hoping i wouldn't see. >> narrator: journalist safa al-ahmad has been reporting on yemen for the past six years, from the rise of al qaeda to the outbreak of civil war to the military intervention by a coalition

led by saudi arabia. once a key american ally in the war on terror, yemen has been torn apart. with yemen's future uncertain, safa is heading into the country to see the human toll of the war. the journey takes a day and a half on a merchant ship from djibouti. she arrives at the southern port of aden, where she had been a year earlier, before the war had reached the city. >> safa al-ahmad: the human cost of this war on yemen is frightening. it was heartbreaking to see such a beautiful city that was already suffering and hardly keeping itself together be completely decimated by the war, especially the old streets that we used to walk in and the ports and all that, to see it so destroyed. the reality of the war starts

to sink in. >> narrator: yemen began unraveling two years ago, when a rebel group called the houthis pushed south from their northern stronghold, trying to gain control of the country. the houthis soon seized the capital, sana'a, and deposed the president. they posted their motto in the streets: "god is great. death to america. death to israel. god curse the jews. victory to islam." the houthis and many defecting army units then continued south, taking over most of yemen. by 2015, the group reached aden, igniting months of intense fighting. (gunfire) >> narrator: abu mishaal and his fellow soldiers tried to defend

the city against the houthis. >> (on video): allahu akbar! (explosion) (gunfire)

(gunfire) >> narrator: with the city under attack, saudi arabia joined in concerned about the houthi's tio their arch rival, iran. they lea coalition of of neighboring countries with support from the. (explosion) >> narrator: by last summer, the houthis were driven out of aden, and the ruined city became yemen's temporary capital. >> al-ahmad: when i came back, people in aden were just starting to recover. a lot of people reopened their shops. business was as usual. people went back to fishing and to opening their restaurants. but also what you could feel was very palpable in the city the fear of the unknown, of what could go wrong now. >> narrator: since forcing the houthis out of aden, the saudi coalition has tried to push the

rebels back north and reinstate the government in sana'a. but the advance has been slow, and the two sides remain deadlocked at the strategic city of taiz. >> al-ahmad: taiz is strategically important because whoever controls the city will have an easier time moving in and controlling and maintaining sana'a. >> narrator: the fighting has effectively cut off taiz, yemen's third-largest city, from the rest of the world. >> al-ahmad: i really wanted to go and see for myself because so little information that is reliable comes out from yemen. and this is one of the major challenges: the different factions involved in the war don't necessarily want journalists there. >> narrator: a group of yemeni fighters working with the saudi coalition agrees to take safa to the front line near taiz. abdul barri is the commander.

(loud gunfire) >> narrator: abdul barri's men have spent months trying to break the houthi's siege of taiz. (gunfire) >> narrator: with heavy cover fire, abdul barri sends a small team of men up to the houthi position.

but the team is pinned down. >> narrator: he calls for help from the coalition forces. (phone ringing) >> al-ahmad: i was filming on the front line, i think, for over an hour or so, and then suddenly, this apc just drives right in to where i'm sitting, and the uae soldiers come out of it, and i just freeze because when i arrived, one of the first things i did is to go visit the uae forces and ask them officially for permission to film with them. they never gave such permission. and so i try to, you know, blend in so that nobody would notice me, and i zoom in on them and i start filming.

>> al-ahmad: since the war started, and especially when the siege on taiz started, there were a lot of promises from the coalition of breaking the siege. but it was months and months, and by the time i got there, i think it's a fair critique to say that the war was going extremely slowly for the liking of a lot of yemenis. >> narrator: elsewhere along the frontline, a different group of fighters spots safa and starts shouting. (men shouting)

>> al-ahmad: he just says quite casually, these are al qaeda in the arabian peninsula, and he referred to them by their local name, which is ansar al-sharia. he revealed what is considered an open secret in the front lines, that they had been fighting with all the different factions: the yemeni factions and the coalition against the houthis. >> narrator: al qaeda has long been a dominant force in yemen. safa reported on their presence here years before the civil war.

>> al-ahmad: i first embedded with al qaeda in the arabian peninsula in 2012, when they had actually controlled huge parts of south yemen and declared it an islamic state before there was such a thing as an islamic state. >> narrator: the group was labed by the u.s. as one of the most s branches of al qaeda and had been a target of repeated by strikes by american drones and the yemeni air force. >> narrator: but now, even as the drone strikes have continued, al qaeda has joined the fight against the houthis-- on the same side as the united states. >> al-ahmad: this is why it's so difficult to explain the war on yemen, because there are so many enemies that find themselves on the same front lines fighting the other enemy.

a lot of people who wanted to fight the houthis that didn't necessarily agree with al qaeda did join them because that was a ready front for them to go out and fight. and that grew with the ranks of al qaeda, and so the situation only got worse from 2012 till now. >> al-ahmad: and frankly, the fragile alliances that have been built, the only common denominator between them has been fighting the houthis. i think a lot of people worry about what will happfter there is no more houthi to fight, as in how those different factions are going to deal with each other after the war is over.

>> narrator: after weeks of trying, safa finally reaches the outskirts of taiz. the only way into the city itself is a treacherous mountain path used by smugglers. convoys of donkeys and camels are the city's only lifeline, carrying food, oil, wood, medicine, and weapons. >> al-ahmad: after you've survived and gone up the mountain, then you have to have a car meet you at the top of the mountain, and then you cross another very dangerous area. mortars can hit at any time. the snipers can get you at any time as well, so you have to be very careful about those things. >> narrator: she enters the city at night. houthi fighters are all around

taiz, and anything moving in the dark is a target. (gunfire) >> al-ahmad: i've been in taiz many times over the years. it is a beautiful city, extremely vibrant. it is considered the cultural heart of yemen. and when i arrived in taiz after being smuggled up the mountain, i saw a different city. it was empty and haunted and broken in a way i was hoping i wouldn't see. >> narrator: an estimated 400,000 residents have fled taiz-- half the city's population. (explosion)

(dog barking) those who remain are at the mercy of whoever controls the hilltops surrounding the city. for months, the houthis' grip has been unbreakable. mohammad is one of many young residents who have joined the fight against the houthis. >> narrator: from his bunker, mohammad overlooks one of the city's main entrances, where residents have to go through checkpoints maintained by the two sides.

>> al-ahmad: taiz has two main entrances into the city, from the east and from the west, and the houthis have controlled those two main entrances and have encircled the city, so they dictated what food got in, if you were able to get gas in, or petrol, or medicine. so it's a daily struggle, basically.

>> al-ahmad: there is a lot of anger inside the city that fellow yemenis are besieging us. i think that has been really hard on a lot of people, to understand when something like that happens. while i was filming the checkpoints from the local resistance side, there was a tiny little house on the right, and i saw the little girl frying the bread, and so i asked permission to start filming them, and this is how i was introduced to hammed and his mother.

>> narrator: little remains functional in taiz. the cities water supply has

become incresingly sporadic. every day, dozens of children line up to bring water home to their families. but it's a dangerous job. the day safa arrived, a houthi mortar struck one of the water tanks. >> al-ahmad: 23 kids were injured in this mortar attack, and five of the children were killed. one of the survivors was a little girl, and she was brought to the hospital that i happened to be filming in that day. >> narrator: six-year-old asmaa suffered severe shrapnel wounds to the head. she survived, but is in critical condition.

>> narrator: since the siege of taiz began in august 2015, doctors here at the al-thawra hospital say it has lost over 70% of its staff, and is barely getting by. >> narrator: even necessities

like oxygen, which is needed for putting patients under general anesthesia, are in short supply. the trauma unit has to ration what little there is. mukhtar was not one of the lucky ones. (groaning) >> narrator: there used to be 20 hospitals in taiz. now, only a handful are partialy functioning.

>> narrator: the head of al-thawra's trauma unit is dr. abu dhar. when he can, he also performs surgeries on non-trauma patients. for people who are critically ill, the unit is their last resort. on this day, he is performing an operation on a man with kidney failure. under ordinary circumstances, dr. abu dhar says he would have transferred the man to another hospital.

>> narrator: this is the man who many in taiz are depending on to save the city: hamoud al-mikhlafi, the leader of the anti-houthi resistance here.

>> narrator: the american-backed saudi coalition is supporting his fighters, but mikhlafi says it's not enough. >> narrator: with the fighting at a stalemate, there have been ongoing attempts at peace talks. but neither the houthis nor the coalition have stood down for long.

>> al-ahmad: he expressed the feelings of many within the local resistance against the houthis. they have lost faith in any peace process or negotiations, and they have no trust for the houthis keeping their word, basically. (gunfire) >> narrator: with so much fighting and so many people having fled, schools in taiz have been closed for months. (gunfire) >> narrator: though his house is

on the line of fire between the local fighters and the houthis, abdullah and his family have refused to leave. >> narrator: the house is barely standing, and in danger from the near constant shelling. (gunfire) (explosions)

>> narrator: abdullah's sister- in-law says that for those who have stayed behind, life has become unbearable. >> al-ahmad: i went to one oft

the newest cemeteries in taiz that started after the war, and a lot of the tombstones i saw were for children, and so many of them die in mortar attacks. there's a mother that i met at the cemetery, and her child had been killed by a mortar. >> al-ahmad: even the cemetery itself wasn't even spared the mortar attacks. so there was an attack, i think about a month before we arrived, where it killed several of the children that happened to be in the cemetery, and you can see the shrapnel in the graveyard itself, and then all the way up the mango tree of where it was hit.

>> narrator: back at al-thawra hospital, the young girl asmaa remains in critical condition. the doctors say they are running out of options.

>> al-ahmad: dr. abu dhar was quite worried about what he was seeing happening to his city, but not only just to his city, his country. he has seen the impact of the wars in the past year, and the real ramifications on the younger generations right now. while i was there, all of a sudden, he sees a 15-year-old kid who he knew his mother

very well, and he had joined a jihadi group as a 15 year old. and you could see how distraught he was. >> narrator: outside the hospital, another injured fighter arrives, shot in the chest by a sniper. (shouting)

(shouting)

>> narrator: soon after safa left taiz, the critically injured girl, asmaa, was smuggled down the mountain in an attempt to save her life. she died just after arriving in aden. >> al-ahmad: the ramifications of yemen falling apart on the region are massive. you're dealing with a country that has failed. we're not talking about failing or on the brink anymore, the way we used to describe yemen, we are talking about it being completely decimated right now. and where do you go from there? so we're looking at another somalia, another syria, another iraq, another libya.

>> we created chaos, we abandoned that chaos, we created isis. >> zarqawi was responsible for attacks in 2003. >> zarqawi can direct his network in the middle east and beyond. >> it made him an international rock star in the jihadist community. >> zarqawi was ours for the taking. >> and we weren't doing anything about it. zarqawi achieved what he wanted to achieve. >> go to pbs.org/frontline for more on how libya descended into chaos. >> it's impossible to defeat isis within this situation. explore an interactive guide to who's who in the fight for yemen.

learn more about the human cost of the war there. then connect to tfrontline community on facebook and twitter. and if stories like this matter to you, then sign up for our newsletter at pbs.org/frontline. >> frontlinis made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. and by the corporation for public broadcasting. major support for frontliis provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information is available at macfound.org. additional support is provided by the park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues. the john and helen glessner family trust, supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. the ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide, at fordfoundation.org. the wyncote foundation.

and by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> for more on this and other frontline programs, visit our website at pbs.org/frontline. frontline's "benghazi in crisis" is available on dvd. to order, visit shoppbs.org or call 1-800-play-pbs. frontline is also available for download on itunes.

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[acoustic guitar] ♪ i went running to redemption in an old song, ♪ ♪ like an old train rolling down the tracks. ♪ ♪ i'll never change the strings on this old guitar, ♪ ♪ they still ring out, hope redemption will be back. ♪ ♪ redemption, wash over me. ♪ ♪ lead me from darkness to light. ♪ ♪ redemption, i'm weary and weak, ♪